Pakistani Taliban 'Serious' About Talks

Mediators from the Pakistani government’s team say that the only way the peace talks with the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) will resume is if the TTP agrees to a ceasefire.

The TTP had been planning to announce a ceasefire on Monday, but was trying to get an agreement for reciprocity from the Pakistani military. After the TTP-Mohmand killed 23 captive Frontier Corps soldiers over the weekend, the whole process collapsed.

TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid says his group remains “serious” about the talks and continues to negotiate the terms of a ceasefire, though there is no announcement of when that will happen.

The leader of the TTP negotiator team, Maulana Sami Haq, was much less upbeat, saying that he’s waiting for the government negotiators to confirm that they even want talks anymore.

Ceasefire Apparently Dead as Govt Cancels Meeting

The peace talks between the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Pakistani government appear to have collapsed today, and previous plans for a ceasefire announcement today are also dead, with no meetings planned going forward.

The process seemed to be moving forward comparatively smoothly, but is now in tatters after the leader of the TTP-Mohmand, one of the Taliban’s auxiliaries, announced yesterday he had executed 23 captured members of Pakistan’s Frontier Corps.

The 23 had been kidnapped quite some time ago and kept in TTP custody, and were executed nominally in revenge for the deaths of TTP fighters in military custody. The belief is that the TTP-Mohmand leader opposed the talks, and he is now openly accused of having “sabotaged” the process.

Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif followed up the executions today with an announcementthat the talks are cancelled, saying the brutal killings proved they are heading in the wrong direction.

Today’s talks had been expected to yield a ceasefire, with the TTP just trying to nail down some assurances that the Pakistani military would abide by it as well. Needless to say, neither side is ceasing fire now.

Can't Fly Drones Out if Afghanistan Isn't Occupied

The Obama Administration continues to push the idea that the “zero option,” of leaving Afghanistan outright at the end of the year, remains possible. Despite this, officials across several agencies, including the Pentagon, have insisted it is not under serious consideration.

The CIA sees such a pullout as a huge problem, after the Pakistani government chased them out of airfields they were using for drones and forced them to relocate into Afghanistan. A withdrawal would effectively stall the drone war, and it might never recover.

Though officials say there are “contingency plans” to relocate the drones themselves into an unnamed former Soviet country north of Afghanistan, the already slap-dash intelligence the agency manages to get about who it kills would be much worse still.

So while the actual military logic behind occupying Afghanistan becomes weaker and weaker, the spy agency is pushing to continue that occupation, potentially for decades to come, simply so they can more conveniently assassinate people in Pakistan.

Rebel General's Replacement Less Cozy With US

Even though Gen. Salim Idriss’ actual influence on the civil war in Syria was virtually gone after December, when the Islamic Front seized all his warehouses full of US goods and his office, the formal dismissal of Idriss from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) leadership position has the US scrambling to find a new “face of the revolution.”

The defector general was the nice, moderate, Western-friendly face of a military dominated rebellion that realistically no longer exists, as the FSA’s relevance is near nil and the civil war is increasingly dominated by al-Qaeda factions.

To make matters even more difficult for the Obama Administration, Idriss’ replacement, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir has few international ties and seems much less inclined to be “America’s man in Syria.”

As a practical matter, the fighting on the ground is all done by Islamist factions now anyhow, but the US ability to spin their support for the rebels in general as shoring up a moderate faction led by Idriss is seriously compromised now, and the Obama Administration will struggle to sell its ongoing military aid to rebels as anything but de facto backing for radical Islamist factions.

High-Level Discussions Ongoing for New Intervention

His last push to war in Syria was an embarrassing failure, but President Obama isn’t giving up on the idea, and is said to be pushing for new “military options” for escalating intervention in Syria.

“There is a general sense that it’s time to take another look,” said one official, and it seems the renewed interest in pushing for intervention is mostly about the collapse of the Geneva II talks, which ended when the US demand for unconditional regime change went nowhere.

Rather, the high-level talks that are ongoing are said to involve imposing “no-fly zones” or dramatically escalating arms and advisers for the rebels, a back-door way for the US to insinuate itself more in anticipation of eventually finding an excuse for a bigger intervention with ground troops.

Saudis Had Previously Held Back Shipments

An unnamed US official has come out today and confirmed that the Obama Administration remains opposed to Saudi shipments of anti-aircraft missiles to Syrian rebels, though indications are that much shipments are set to begin.

Saudi officials confirmed last week that they were planning to begin shipments of Chinese shoulder-mounted MANPADs to “tip the balance” of the ongoing civil war.

The big concern is that even the “moderate” rebel factions have said they intend to attack civilian aircraft when they get such weapons, believing any plane in Syrian airspace is a “legitimate target.”

It isn’t clear how deep the US “opposition” goes anymore, however, as while the Saudis had previously held back the shipments at the behest of the US, the official statements from the US don’t seem to be slowing them this time around.

AQI's Style of Rule Unsettling to Other Jihadists

The town of Adana, Syria was a relatively calm border town not so long ago. Then one day, the militants showed up, declaring the town part of the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syrian” (ISIS).

Now, checkpoints leading into the town are littered with corpses, and locals fear for their lives on a daily basis as the militants, also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) impose a particularly harsh brand of Salafist Islam on the locals.

It’s a sad story, but an all too common one, as ISIS territory now covers a large portion of northern Syria, including the major city of Raqqa and most of the surrounding province, and their style of rule is so brutal that even the other Islamist rebels are standing up and taking notice.

Even al-Qaeda thought AQI was far too brutal for their tastes, and disavowed the group. Despite this loss of faith from al-Qaeda’s parent group, AQI has continued to gain territory in both Syria and Iraq.

European Commission seizes frozen Syrian assets

The European Commission announced having "freed up" Syria’s frozen assets, in order to fund the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.

This unilateral decision runs counter to the OPCW resolution, adopted 15 November 2013, which highlights Syria’s financial inability to pay for their destruction and creates a special international fund as a substitute.

Reacting to this measure, the Syrian government has condemned the theft of assets belonging to the Syrian people. It furthermore recalled that member governments of the European Union have and continue to fund terrorism in Syria, in violation of relevant UN resolutions. In addition, EU Member States are illegally buying Syrian oil siphoned off by the Contras at the expense of the Syrian people.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/841989.shtml

Syria slams EU for intention to use frozen assets for chemical destruction

The Syrian foreign ministry on Tuesday warned the EU against using frozen Damascus assets to finance the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal, a mission led by world bodies.

The remarks came after EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton revealed intention to use the money to support the ongoing process overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

"We decided to make sure that assets frozen in the EU could be invested into the OPCW fund to help with the removal and destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons," Ashton said.

The Syrian ministry said the move reflected the "hypocrisy and evasion" of some EU countries, which refused to unfreeze the assets for Syria to buy medicine and food.

In addition, the ministry demanded the EU lift the "unmoral" sanctions against Syria, threatening "necessary measures" in case of "infringement" upon Syria's frozen assets.

Shortly after mass protests broke out in Syria in early 2011, the EU slapped Damascus with harsh economic sanctions, including an oil embargo, and withdrew its experts from the country.

Last year, the Syrian government agreed with the OPCW on eradicating its chemical arsenal after an alleged deadly chemical attack took place outside Damascus. An OPCW-UN joint mission said Monday that a third batch of chemical weapons had been shipped out of Syria for destruction.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18897218

Syria crisis: £100m Assad assets in UK are frozen

Assets worth £100m belonging to Syrian leaders have been located and frozen in Britain, the BBC has learned.

The European Union imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's regime after it violently suppressed anti-government protests.

Most of the UK assets is cash held in bank accounts by people and organisations named in the EU's action.

Syria: US Created 'Negative Climate' for Talks

Last week’s round of Geneva II peace talks on Syria have come and gone, and it doesn’t seem possible they could’ve gone worse, with US and Syrian officials eachinsisting the other side is to blame for the failure and what may be the outright collapse of the talks.

Syrian officials insisted the US had been a problem from the start, going into the talks with the goal of creating a “negative climate” and fighting against any discussion of ending the fighting.

Indeed, Secretary of State John Kerry went into the talks insisting the only goal of the conference was regime change, and repeatedly complained Syria was trying to “distract” from that when bringing up things like the al-Qaeda takeover of the north of the country.

Today, Kerry insisted that the Assad government was to blame for “obstruction” of his goal of the talks, and demanded supporters of the Syrian government immediately and unquestioningly endorse regime change.

Bombers again struck Baghdad, but they also hit south of the capital in the Hilla area. Meanwhile fighting continued in Anbar and Salah ad Din provinces. In political news, Moqtada al-Sadr came out of retirement, and a U.S. soldier convicted of heinous acts in Iraq was found dead in prison. Overall, at least 142 people were killed and 163 more were wounded.

In the United States, a U.S. soldier, convicted of rape and murder in Iraq, wasfound dead in a maximum-security jail cell. Steven Dale Green’s death is being investigated as a suicide. He was serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a 14-year old Iraqi girl. He also murdered her parents and six-year-old sister.

In a televised speech from Najaf, Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has reemerged into Iraqi politics just days after he announced he would retire. He said he would not give up his influence at this crucial moment before elections. He also criticized the government and even some members of his own coalition.

Local officials claim much of the city retaken

Tanks and attack helicopters are pouring into the northern Iraqi town of Sulaiman Bek, as the Iraqi military aims to retake it from al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which seized the town last week.

Local officials claimed earlier today that the military has “retaken” the town and the surrounding area, but clashes continue, AQI snipers remain in the town, and by most estimates they’ve taken a bit more than half of the town, with a lot of fighting left to do.

Retaking territory from AQI hasn’t been so easy, and the military has repeatedly reclaimed parts of the Anbar Province from them only to lose it back within a day or two.

And so long as the fighting over Anbar remains unresolved, Sulaiman Bek will remain very much a secondary priority for the Iraqi military, as it is much further from the capital city and in the frontier between Kurdistan and the rest of the nation.

At least 58 people were killed in fresh violence, and 42 more were wounded. Clashes continued in Ramadi and Falluja. The third city under militant control, Suleiman Bek, also saw clashes. Also, Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he would retire from politics just two months before national elections.

US, Iran Meet on Sidelines of Vienna Talks

The nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Iran on a final nuclear settlement began today in Vienna, and despite officials on both sides letting out a flurry of pessimisticstatements yesterday everyone says the atmosphere today was quite positive.

EU officials say the first day of talks included “detained discussions” and were very productive, and that substantive issues surrounding a final settlement were raised.

Even more promising, the US and Iran met on the sidelines at the talks for an 80-minute discussion. The talks are expected to continue tomorrow and may run into Thursday.

The complexities of the issue mean that a final deal is likely to take months to get into place even under the best of conditions, but the news out of Vienna today suggests they are heading in the right direction.

Khamenei: Talks Will Lead Nowhere

The talks between Iran and the P5+1 aiming at a final nuclear settlement are scheduled to begin Tuesday, and it wouldn’t be talks with Iran if the US wasn’t loudly pessimistic about the process.

US officials termed the talks extremely difficult and potentially impossible, coupling a warning that the talks won’t be settled quickly with a bizarre admonishment to Iran to get the deal done quickly.

Iran's Largest Private Bank Sues UK

Government For $4 Billion Over

Sanctions

Ali Divandari, chairman and managing director of Iran's Bank Mellat, talks to a Reuters correspondent at his office in Tehran February 17, 2009.

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's largest private bank is suing the British government for almost $4 billion in damages after the Supreme Court quashed sanctions imposed against it over alleged links to Tehran's nuclear program.

Bank Mellat wants compensation for the "significant pecuniary loss" it sustained as a result of the sanctions, according to a claim filed in London's High Court and seen by Reuters on Monday.

Britain's Supreme Court ruled last June that the government was wrong to have imposed sanctions in 2009, arguing that the government had been "irrational" to single out Bank Mellat.